A new way of dining evolved in France during the years around 1700 that became known as service à la française. In this all the dishes of each course were set out symmetrically at one time and diners helped themselves and their fellow diners to food. The first courses were predominantly savoury and the final one, the dessert, predominantly sweet, though including cheeses as well as fruit and sugared confections. At the tables of the wealthiest members of the French court, exquisite porcelain made at the royal factory of Vincennes-Sèvres would have been used. New shapes by Jean-Claude Duplessis, the factory's directeur artistique, were designed for the first such service ordered by King Louis XV himself in 1753.

This cheese dish was part of an extensive dinner and dessert service ordered by the maréchal-duc de Richelieu in 1758. Richelieu was an important figure at court, active in politics as well as on the battlefield. He ordered his service from the Sèvres factory through the intermediary of the marchand-mercier, Mme. Duvaux, who had worked alongside her husband Lazare Duvaux until his death in 1758. It may surprise us today that he chose a pink ground colour, but the colour was newly invented, extremely expensive and all the rage at the time. The ceramics researcher David Peters has analysed the factory sales records service by service and discovered that this service comprised place settings for twenty-four diners with plates of different types accompanied by serving dishes, including tureens, sauceboats, salts, cups for bouillon, mustard pots, salad bowls, butter dishes, wine-bottle coolers, glass rinsers, punch bowls and stands for oil and vinegar bottles. Some items were clearly for the dessert, including dishes for cooked, fresh or preserved fruits, ice-cream cups and jam pots with stands and two cheese dishes and stands, of which this is one. Priced at 240 livres each, these cheese dishes were on a par with the most expensive items in the service (plates cost a mere 60 livres each), the only item which cost more being a chestnut basket costing 360 livres. (The exchange rate in mid-eighteenth century France was 24 livres to £1, so the cheese dish cost the enormous sum of £10, the equivalent of a year's salary for a skilled artisan).